A message from Spirit of America, presented in full:

Dear Friends & Donors,

This message has updates, photos and lots of links on projects that your support has made possible:

* America-Iraq School Partners program.
* Support for Lebanon’s independence
* Friends of Democracy
* Gifts for Iraqi children
* Orphans day in Iraq

This entire message with photos is also on our website here:

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/594

AMERICA-IRAQ SCHOOL PARTNERS

The America-Iraq School Partners Program pilot launched in April, 2005. It is designed to establish friendships and enable exchange between American and Iraqi schoolchildren. The pilot phase features 13 American schools and 17 schools in Iraq. More than 1500 schoolchildren are participating. Here is a photo of a participating classroom in Basra, Iraq:

We are looking for more schools (elementary, middle and high schools) in the U.S. to join for the 2005-2006 school year. There is no cost to participating schools although schools may exchange gifts. If you have a school interested in participating in the program, click here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/projects/13 for more information or send inquiries to tamara@spiritofamerica.net.

SUPPORT FOR LEBANON’S INDEPENDENCE

On April 6 we kicked off a project to support Lebanon’s struggle for independence. We had been asked by some Lebanese and Lebanese Americans if we could provide assistance to the tent city demonstrators who were keeping national and world attention on ending Syria’s occupation and achieving free elections in Lebanon. The original project description is here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/projects/96

This was our first project outside Iraq and Afghanistan and some of our supporters asked why we would do something in Lebanon and what happened to supporting requests from Marines in Iraq. Our view on “Why Lebanon?” is here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/584. We also asked Marines we have assisted in Iraq for their perspectives. Their responses here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/583

Thanks to your support more than $60,000 was quickly contributed to the Lebanon project. We helped the tent city demonstrators achieve their main goal: free elections. This involved pressuring for a “Call for Elections.” Our support helped them increase the visibility of their demands – the countdown clock in the photos below that was erected in Martyrs Square is one example.

The official call for elections by Parliament came with only one day left on the countdown clock. Elections are now scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 29. With that goal achieved tent city has been dismantled. There is still a long way to go for genuinely free, stable and peaceful Lebanon but this was a great step forward.

We also provided Internet connectivity to tent city itself and provided the resources, technical assistance and training that allowed the tent city demonstrators to create a website to tell their story to the world. You can visit Pulse of Freedom at http://www.pulseoffreedom05.org/.

A letter of support to the demonstrators from former Czech President Vaclav Havel was arranged by Ambassador Mark Palmer, a Member of Spirit of America’s Advisory Board. It did a lot to boost morale in tent city. You can read it here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/565

For the first time we deployed a blogger to write about one of our project. Michael Totten was in Beirut for a month and did a great job. You can read his fascinating blog posts here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/lebanonblog

Other acknowledgements: Tiran Kiremidjian was onsite in Lebanon for Spirit of America for 3 weeks serving as a liaison: helping to define and responding to needs of the tent city demonstrators. And, Harish Rao of EchoDitto was also on site for SoA and was the lead on providing the training and technical assistance that got the Pulse of Freedom website and blog launched.

FRIENDS OF DEMOCRACY

Friends of Democracy is the Iraqi pro-democracy organization Spirit of America has supported since last October. They have done great work under very dangerous circumstances. Click below for an extensive update on Friends of Democracy and our activities in support of Iraq’s January 30 election, including details on funds raised, expenditures and results.

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/593

Photo below is of a women’s workshop by Friends of Democracy that involved training and use of our Arabic blogging tool. Read the story here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/580

On February 24 Friends of Democracy sponsored a seminar to educate and involve children in discussions on democracy as part of the “children parliament” project. Photo below. Read about it here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/FoD_Nurturing_the_Next_Generation

GIFTS FOR IRAQI CHILDREN

The 2nd Marine Division at Camp Blue Diamond, Iraq has received 7500 watches from Timex, 4554 pairs of children’s Elan-Polo athletic shoes and 6000 Champion soccer balls to distribute as part of the “Gifts for Iraqi Children” project. The project is described here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/projects/18

The Marines are using the gifts to brighten the day of children in Al Anbar province – the scene of some of the worst continued fighting and terrorism in Iraq. Some photos and links to stories on our site are below

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/Gifts_for_Iraqi_children_email_from_Jones

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/Gift_for_Iraq_children_received

ORPHANS DAY IN IRAQ

Spirit of America provided gifts, clothing and personal items to children in Baghdad and Basra on “Orphans Day.” Photos below are from an event for orphans by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Read about it here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/Orphans_Day_Success

We are working on providing ongoing assistance to orphans in Iraq: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/projects/91. More on this next week.

ANSWERS TO SOME QUESTIONS

Read this page on our blog for answers to some recently-asked questions:

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/592

Thank you for your support. Please contact us at staff@spiritofamerica.net if you have any questions.

All the best,

Jim Hake and the Spirit of America team

Doc in the Box is shooting for hit number 150,000.

And while you’re there, get caught up on one of the better Iraqi-based mil-blogs around. He has sparkly links and cursors that turn into crosshairs too.

Via Mustang who’s also over there and thinks I’m funny. Which for me is a first from an Army Captain…I usually just annoy them.

Spirit of America is just the busiest organization I know. Go check out the latest posts on the blog.

Of course while you’re there, you may as well drop a buck or two in the basket.

I can’t find a web-based version of the story but earlier today on Fox, Shepard Smith reported that in one town, after a bomb had gone off, Iraqi citizens were lining back up to vote while the carnage of the explosion was still being cleaned up.

Say what you want, I’m impressed as hell and my hat is off to every Iraqi who came out and voted today…even if they are embarassing the hell out of every yahoo American who didn’t vote back in November because FILL IN YOUR WHINEY-ASSED EXCUSE HERE.

More news from Jim Hake of Spirit of America:

Great news! We’ve just received confirmation that C-SPAN is planning to
cover Spirit of America’s Iraq election event this Sunday from 2pm to
4pm Eastern (11am to 1pm Pacific). Please watch. Your support has
made this possible. Please forward this message far and wide and
encourage people to tune in.

Iraq’s elections are an historic event. This broadcast will provide a
unique, more complete picture of the elections with ground-level news
and views from the Iraqi people. You will get much more than the
typical focus on violence and terrorism. We’ll have reports, photos
and video from all corners of Iraq. The broadcast event is described
more here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/site/blog/459

You can see reports and photos now at:
http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info. And, during the show on Sunday,
we will be publishing the discussion at
http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info and asking for your comments.

For members of THE DAILY BRIEF: If you’re going to be in Washington D.C. tomorrow and would like to be part of this panel, drop me a line and I’ll see if I can hook you up.

Here’s part of an email I received from Jim Hake of Spirit of America talking up Friends of Democracy:

Spirit of America’s work with Friends of Democracy to provide a full
picture of Iraq’s elections is coming to fruition. This project has
been to provide a ground-level view of the elections from the people
and bloggers of Iraq (yes, I know, bloggers are people, too). There
are lots of good reports already on the Friends of Democracy site at

http://www.friendsofdemocracy.info

The information is not “candy coated” – it simply does more than
emphasize terrorism and violence. It provides good news and bad.
Please link to the site and check it for news. It will be especially
good on election day. We’ll have reports and photos coming in from all
corners of Iraq.

Iraqi election news from (GASP!) Iraqis.

How cool is that?

I work down the hall from a Marine Major whose primary purpose seems to be changing internet chat rooms from a teenager’s toy for trading porn and pirated music into a weapon of mass communication. Daniel Drezner has a story that will make the Major very-very happy.

Total before I turned into a pumpkin: $350.00. Some of you were busy today. Bless you and the fine work you do.

Don’t forget to surf around Spirit of America (SOA) and see all the good work previous contributions have done and bookmark the SOA site when you’re over there. The current Blogger Challenge is over today, but SOA takes contributions all year long.